Sand, Schwartz, Friedrichs: Prop. 32 gives teachers a voice

Oct. 31, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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By LARRY SAND, VICKI SCHWARTZ, and REBECCA FRIEDRICHS / Sand is president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network; Schwartz teaches third grade in Rancho Santa Margarita; and Friedrichs has been an O.C. educator for 25 years

The California Teachers Association (CTA) is claiming that if Prop. 32 passes, public school teachers in California will no longer have a voice. But the truth is that many teachers already don't have a voice because of the union's political agenda and unfettered control over teachers' required "contributions." In fact, if Prop. 32 survives the $20.1 million dollar attack upon it by CTA and becomes law, only then will all teachers finally have a voice.

According to the California Fair Practices Commission, from 2000-2009, the CTA was the biggest spender in California – doling out almost $212 million on candidates, ballot measures and lobbying. Teachers, much like the rest of the population, come in all political stripes – some lean to the right or left politically, vote independent, or are apolitical, yet CTA spending goes in only one direction – left, and often far left.

In the October 2012 issue of California Educator, CTA's monthly magazine, a voter guide for teachers was provided. It urges teachers to vote against Prop. 32, and support candidates and positions that will further the union's progressive political agenda.

Rank-and-file teachers were not polled to determine what, if any, candidates and ballot initiatives should, or should not be, recommended. Although the "contributions" of all union members paid for this voter guide, the voices of moderate, apolitical and conservative teachers were totally ignored and misrepresented.

In contrast to the misleading "No on 32" commercials paid for by the CTA and other opponents of this liberating initiative, Prop. 32 would prohibit corporations, unions and government employers from deducting union dues that are used for political purposes from their workers' paychecks without their consent. In addition, Prop. 32 would ban direct corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates, and contributions by government contractors to the politicians who control contracts awarded to them.

The beauty of Prop. 32 is that it provides teachers the same rights as all other Californians, the right to donate to anyone they choose, or not to donate at all, instead of the union using teachers' personal incomes to promote causes which many of them oppose. And CTA knows that if it loses the right to authoritarian control over teachers' "contributions," it will lose its power to promote its agenda at the cost of many of its rank and file.

In 1997, Idaho legislators "required political committees to get annual written consent from workers before obtaining contributions through automatic payroll deductions. According to news accounts, the number of union members contributing to union political committees dropped by 75 percent."

How do teachers unions justify their automatic deductions? In 1978, then National Education Association general counsel Bob Chanin explained, "It is well-recognized that if you take away the mechanism of payroll deduction you won't collect a penny from these people, and it has nothing to do with voluntary or involuntary. I think it has a lot to do with the nature of the beast, and the beasts who are our teachers... [They] simply don't come up with the money regardless of the purpose."

Chanin is claiming that teachers are "beasts" – ostensibly unintelligent beings who are incapable of knowing what's good for them, so the union should be allowed to take their money and spend it in whatever ways it sees fit because "they know better."

Prop. 32 is a fairness and respect issue. Should it become law, the current unfair system whereby the unions siphon off teachers' earnings and spend them in ways anathema to them, will end.

Teachers will no longer be required to pay for the CTA's pet political projects, candidates, and initiatives. It just isn't fair to take the hard earned money of middle class teachers and hand it over to an entity that represents only its own powerful political agenda.

Larry Sand, a retired teacher who taught in Los Angeles and New York public schools for more than 28 years, is the president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network (ctenhome.org). Vicki Schwartz teaches third grade at Melinda Heights Elementary School, a public school in Rancho Santa Margarita. Rebecca Friedrichs has been an educator in Orange County public schools for 25 years.

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